What it means when Google begins shaping the guest journey long before travelers reach your hotel website
Nov 19, 2025
Google’s latest AI trip-planning tool doesn’t just help travelers organise their vacations; it quietly reorganises how travelers discover, compare, and select hotels. By generating full itineraries from a single prompt — and surfacing hotels inside that flow — Google is inserting itself deeper into the decision-making stage where hotels traditionally fight for visibility.
Key takeaways
- AI-assembled itineraries shift hotel discovery upstream: When a traveler describes their ideal trip, Google’s AI produces a complete plan — including hotel suggestions — long before the user searches for specific properties.
- Google’s Canvas becomes a new planning surface: The visual planning mode places hotels, maps, reviews, and activity ideas side by side. Properties that surface here become the “default choice” without guests ever visiting an OTA or hotel site.
- Global rollouts expand Google’s influence: As tools like Flight Deals and agentic booking expand worldwide, more travelers will rely on Google to generate and refine their plans — compressing the traditional booking funnel.
- AI convenience reduces comparison shopping: If the itinerary “just works,” many guests may skip manual research, which could reduce brand discovery for hotels not present or well-optimised in Google’s ecosystem.
- Hotels need to optimise their presence where AI looks: Accurate content, strong Google Business Profiles, high-quality reviews, competitive pricing, and up-to-date GDS/OTA connectivity all influence whether a property qualifies as an AI-recommended option.
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